In August 1949, before the Battle of Lanzhou, Peng Dehuai received a telegram from Chairman Mao, demanding that the Qingma armed forces led by Ma Bufang must be dealt a devastating blow, that they should not accept the uprising of the Majia Army, and that they should not reorganize the Troops of the MaJia army. During the Liberation War, why did the People's Liberation Army, which had always been good at political offensives, fight so fiercely in this war?
1. Ma Jiajun
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out throughout the country, and the Qing Dynasty mobilized a large number of troops to encircle and suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army, which caused an emptiness in the defense of the northwest. At the same time, a large-scale riot broke out in the northwest, also known as the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Rebellion, which had a great impact at the time.
The chaotic Qing government hastily dispatched the Eight Banners general Duolonga, who was fighting with the Taiping Army in the south, to lead the troops north, and although the rebels were huge, they were all chaotic troops, which could not be compared with the Qing government's army, and were quickly defeated by Duolonga. However, Doronga was killed while pursuing the mob. After Doronga's death, the rebellion that had been quelled arose again, and by this time the situation in the south had eased a lot, and the Qing government sent Zuo Zongtang to lead the Xiang army to the northwest to encircle and suppress.
In 1862, Zuo Zongtang was appointed governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and at that time Zuo Zongtang faced a total of four rebel forces: Ma Hualong against Lingzhou, Ma Guiyuan against Xining, Ma Wenlu against Suzhou, and Ma Zhan'ao against Hezhou.
Who knew that just after the start of the fight, Ma Zhan'ao and his deputy Ma Haiyan killed the Qing commanders Fu Xianzong and Xu Wenxiu in the Battle of the Prince Temple, and beheaded nearly 150 generals, creating the biggest defeat in Zuo Zongtang's life, which made Zuo Zongtang, who had experienced hundreds of battles, very upset. Just as he was preparing to concentrate his forces on destroying Ma Zhan'ao, Ma Zhan'ao sent his son Ma Anliang to kneel in front of Zuo Zongtang's camp to plead guilt.
In fact, Ma Zhan'ao is a smart person, he knows that with the strength of these people, even if they get some small victories by chance, it is impossible to achieve a comprehensive victory, and in the end they still have to lose. After Ma Zhan'ao surrendered to the Xiang army, he immediately turned his gun on his compatriots, cut melons and cut vegetables, and successfully trapped thirteen old sect leaders led by Ma Guiyuan. In order to cover up the secret of the original rebellion, Ma Zhan'ao poisoned them and blinded them, cut off their hands and tendons, and sent them to Lanzhou to ask for credit.
After the rebellion in the northwest was put down, Zuo Zongtang began to support Ma Zhan'ao in the northwest, and when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, the Ma family army made great sacrifices to resist the invasion of foreign enemies, so it was more valued by the Qing court. After the Xinhai Revolution, Ma Jiajun became a major warlord in the northwest region.
During the Republic of China period, Ma Zhan'ao's descendants declined, but the descendants of his two deputies, Ma Haiyan and Ma Jiuling, gradually developed and developed into Qingma led by Ma Bufang, and Ningma, led by Ma Hongkui, and entrenched in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and other places.
Among these units, the most capable of fighting was the Qingma army led by Ma Bufang, who had the largest cavalry armed force in the country at that time, and even the later Japanese cavalry could not defeat the Qingma cavalry.
2. The Western Route Army
In October 1936, after the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, in order to open up the Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang to receive Soviet assistance, the Western Route Army was formed, and the general commander of the Western Route Army was Xu Xiangqian, the former commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, Chen Changhao as the political commissar, and Wang Shusheng, the deputy commander-in-chief.
The Red Army of the Western Route Army was all from the Red Fourth Front, with a total of 21,800 people, and the total strength of the Red Army at that time was only more than 50,000 people, which accounted for three-fifths of the total strength of the Red Army at that time.
There are three armies under the jurisdiction of the Western Route Army, Dong Zhentang, commander of the Fifth Army, Huang Chao, political commissar, Li Pingren, chief of staff, Sun Yuqing, commander of the Ninth Army, Chen Haisong, political commissar, Chen Bozhi, chief of staff, Cheng Shicai, commander of the Thirtieth Army, Li Xiannian, political commissar, and Huang Huxian, chief of staff.
Although the Western Route Army had more than 20,000 people and a cavalry division of 200 men, there were not many guns, less than half of the more than 20,000 people had guns, and each person had only five or six rounds of ammunition, and the guns were even fewer. The cavalry units of the Northwest Majia Army were fierce and could not tolerate the Red Army grabbing its own territory.
The combat effectiveness of the Red Fourth Front was not weak, but at that time, the enemy was outnumbered, the Red Army had no mass base in the northwest, coupled with the lack of ammunition, clothing and medicine, and the natural conditions were extremely bad, so this battle was fought very fiercely.
The Western Route Army annihilated 25,000 Majiajun in Gulang, Gaotai, Nijiaying and other places, and according to majiajun records, in this war, the regular troops of Majiajun and local armed forces suffered more than 30,000 casualties. It can be said that the Western Route Army caused tragic casualties to the MaJia Army, and if the Western Route Army had sufficient ammunition, the victory or defeat of this battle may not be easy to say.
However, the losses of the Western Route Army were equally heavy, and the 20,000 Western Route Army was almost completely destroyed, and more than 7,000 people were killed in the battle of the Western Route Army and more than 12,000 were captured. After being captured, more than 6,000 people were brutally killed, more than 3,000 people returned to their hometowns, more than 4,500 people returned to Yan'an after rescue, and more than 1,000 people were displaced in various parts of the northwest. Only Li Xiannian, political commissar of the 30th Army, retreated to Xingxingxia in Xinjiang with more than 420 people, which was the most complete force at that time.
Many well-known generals of the Red Army also died in this war, more than 20 army and division-level cadres were sacrificed under the sword of Ma Jiajun, and as many as 143 regimental-level cadres were sacrificed.
On March 27, 1937, when Zhang Wentian, Mao Zedong, and Zhu De jointly telephoned Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, and Ren Bi, instructing that in order to rescue the dangerous situation of the Western Route Army, to make peace with Ma Bufang and others, the CPC Central Committee was willing to ask Ma Jiajun to stop the attack on the Western Route Army with 100,000 to 200,000 silver dollars.
On April 3, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to Ye Jianying in Xi'an, asking him to propose to Gu Zhutong that if Ma Bufang captured Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao, and other cadres, he should strictly order that no acts of mutilation be committed.
But even under these circumstances, the Ma family army still wantonly killed the captured Red Army commanders and fighters. Later, many senior generals of the People's Liberation Army still remembered this war vividly, and Qin Jiwei, Zheng Weishan, Tao Yong, and others who had made great achievements in the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea were also captured in this war. Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army, and Wang Shusheng, deputy commander-in-chief, both put on makeup and begged for several months before returning to Yan'an.
Third, revenge
After the end of the Battle of Taiyuan in 1949, Peng Dehuai led the 300,000-strong army of the First Field Army to quickly crush Hu Zongnan's troops, and then the troops pointed directly at the Majia Army in the northwest. In fact, in the battle to annihilate the Ma family army, Chairman Mao wanted Xu Qiangqian to command and avenge the revenge of that year, but Xu Xiangqian was not in good health and had to retreat to the rear to recuperate in the later stages of the Taiyuan Campaign.
Mr. Peng also knew this, so when he took over the Battle of Taiyuan, he was a little embarrassed, because Xu Xiangqian had completed all the pre-war preparations, and Mr. Peng was now equivalent to picking peaches. However, when he heard that after the Battle of Taiyuan, the troops attacking Taiyuan could be incorporated into Yiye and go to fight the Ma family army, Mr. Peng agreed, because in the previous battles, Ichino had suffered the losses of the Ma family army many times due to insufficient troops, especially the lack of artillery strength, and Mr. Peng also hated the Ma family army to the teeth, and he actually wanted to seek revenge on the Ma family army.
Mr. Peng led the 300,000-strong army of the First Field Army to conquer Guguan all the way.
Changwu, Jingchuan, Pingliang and other important military towns, the soldiers pointed directly at Lanzhou.
Lanzhou was the seat of the Kuomintang Northwest Military and Political Governor's Office, and at that time, it was not only geographically the hub of the suppression of Qinghai, Gansu's Hexi Corridor, Xinjiang and Ningxia, but also the military and political center of the Kuomintang's reactionary rule in the northwest.
At this time, Ma Bufang, the boss of Qingma, had just become the commander of the Northwest Army, and he did not pay attention to the Platon Army at all, he believed that with the terrain of Lanzhou's mountains and rivers and the national defense fortifications during the War of Resistance, plus the main forces of the Eighty-second Army and the 129th Army stationed in the city, there were ninety-one armies and 120th Army on the left outside the city, and there were newly formed cavalry armies and security regiments on the right, a total of 100,000 troops, which was enough to resist the attack of the Platon Army.
Before the war, Ma Bufang entrusted Ma Jiyuan with the heavy responsibility of holding Lanzhou, and left Lanzhou to return to his old nest of Xining. Before leaving Lanzhou, he also ordered Ma Hongkui of Ningxia to lead his troops to reinforce Lanzhou.
Ma Jiyuan and his father Ma Bufang's bandit personality is not the same, Ma Jiyuan graduated from the Central Military Academy, the Army University
The first phase of the General Officer Class A has a certain military talent. Before the war he adjusted the deployment again, and
He said to his subordinates: "I want to win a great victory over Lanzhou, and then take Xi'an in one fell swoop, kill Tongguan, pacify the Central Plains, occupy the whole country, and let the Ma family rule the world!" ”
On August 21, 1949, Peng Dehuai issued an order to attack Lanzhou, and many senior PLA generals who participated in the campaign were old people of the Western Route Army, and the enemies were extremely red-eyed when they met, and as soon as the two armies came up, they fought to the death. From early morning to dusk, the two sides fought in the dark, and the PLA suffered a lot of casualties, but it did not capture a single enemy position.
The serious defeat in the first battle annoyed Peng Dehuai, who immediately ordered the attack to be stopped and made a review to the generals of the participating troops. After that, Peng Dehuai ordered the First Field Army to make a three-day review, and all commanders mobilized and investigated at the grass-roots level, and repeatedly investigated the enemy's situation, found out the offensive route, and redrafted the battle plan.
At 2:00 a.m. on August 25, Peng Dehuai issued another offensive order. Hundreds of cannons of the Field Artillery Regiment roared at the same time. Suddenly, the earth shook and the flames soared into the sky. After more than half an hour of heavy artillery fire, the PLA corps launched a full-line attack on the enemy in Lanzhou. In just one hour, the People's Liberation Army conquered the enemy's first line of defense, and on the morning of the 26th, the RED flag of the People's Liberation Army was planted on the city of Lanzhou, and the Ma family army was completely annihilated.
In late September 1949, Ma Bufang, Ma Buqing, Ma Jiyuan and others flew to Taiwan one after another. After arriving in Taiwan, in order to prevent disadvantages, Ma Bufang bribed several of Chiang Kai-shek's cronies with 3,000 taels of gold, obtained a passport to go abroad, flew to Cairo, Egypt, and then moved to Saudi Arabia, and finally died in Saudi Arabia on July 31, 1975.